Another full day today, the main exercise being a trip to the government medical centre in Jinhua, an hour east of Quzhou for a full medical checkup. This has to undertaken by anyone staying in the country, including the many overseas students also being processed today. I can report that I passed the physical and, according to their scales, have lost a kilo.
The main thing of course was lunch. We stopped at the Jinhua university which is huge – 30,000 students and covers 20 hectares. The cafeteria was a bit more up-market than ours, and also more expensive. We had some deep fried eggplant stuffed with pork to start. Very tasty but also very oily – not a traditional dish. then we had a beef soup with fresh noodles.
The soup also had bok choy, tomatoes, shallots, garlic & ginger. The flavour was great, and the tomato worked well with the rest of the flavours which surprised me a little. Unfortunately they still use MSG in most cooking in China, so the flavour was enhanced, and I was a little thirsty afterwards. It would have been interesting to have had it without the MSG.
Back to college, just in time to teach a 2 period Oral English class. With only 5 mins to prepare, it was fortunate that the technology functioned perfectly and the presentation, slide show and videos all worked well.
This class seemed more animated and keener than the previous ones, or maybe I’m getting better at engaging with them.
Anyway the class went well, with lots of oral work right up to the bell. The students had to write and read 3 sentences about themselves, and more than one spoke about their favourite food. Speaking about food (again) some of the teachers were having an afternoon snack in their offices, as you do, of roasted baby squid. I tried one but passed on any more – the flavour was just a bit too fishy for me.
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| Beef noodle soup and stuffed eggplant (only one left) |
The soup also had bok choy, tomatoes, shallots, garlic & ginger. The flavour was great, and the tomato worked well with the rest of the flavours which surprised me a little. Unfortunately they still use MSG in most cooking in China, so the flavour was enhanced, and I was a little thirsty afterwards. It would have been interesting to have had it without the MSG.
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| BBQ baby calamari |
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| View of the city , from the college, including new apartments across the road (at left) from the college |
Back to college, just in time to teach a 2 period Oral English class. With only 5 mins to prepare, it was fortunate that the technology functioned perfectly and the presentation, slide show and videos all worked well.
This class seemed more animated and keener than the previous ones, or maybe I’m getting better at engaging with them.
Anyway the class went well, with lots of oral work right up to the bell. The students had to write and read 3 sentences about themselves, and more than one spoke about their favourite food. Speaking about food (again) some of the teachers were having an afternoon snack in their offices, as you do, of roasted baby squid. I tried one but passed on any more – the flavour was just a bit too fishy for me.
